[leaving this text field blank because, honestly, everything I have to say is in this video. look, life can be hard sometimes, it can feel like there's no way out, no hope. what's the point of even getting up in the moment? the answers? they're in this video. thanks for watching] pic.twitter.com/TBERKYE81u

In this thrilling episode which i recorded on my phone for some reason even though i'm sitting right here in the home studio, i talk mostly about my conflicted relationship with college football. Also, I premiere the new song from hit rock band MUSE!

i spent the better part of last week not posting, so that means that the week didn't really happen at all. i could apologize for this, but to whom? i could avenge this grievance, but upon whom? the only thing i can do is swear i'll get better, and that's the thing i (luckily!) happen to be best at.

so there is no formal record of my vacation (minus the dinosaurs i shall be posting shortly). i swear this won't be the case in the future forever and without fail...

For what it's worth i think some of the football press is MAKING WAY TOO BIG OF A DEAL out of the new helmet rule. Maybe I'm wrong and it will be a true game-altering disaster, but I think you can just cite the initial madness around the catch rule (~2010). That sprung a nearly decade's long headache which routinely swung games, and it was only just addressed (apparently!) this off-season. There's going to be controversial calls/interpretations of the new helmet rule that have serious in-game, potentially score-altering outcomes: don't get me wrong, I believe this. But if we, as football fans, had the stomach to weather the catch rule storm for the better part of this century, then we can roll with whatever punches/learning curve this thing necessitates as well. Call it recency bias, call it whatever you like, but these "THE NFL NEEDS TO CHANGE THE HELMET RULE NOW!!" posts seem like disingenuous clickbait. If for no other reason then the people writing them know better! The league is unlikely to admit mistake here, and so the rule will be slowly tweaked in the backrooms until it's only a mild on-field annoyance (and everyone's dulled my its sheer existence), then eventually they might completely re-write it. But I guarantee ya, at that point, if the time ever comes, we'll have all already moved onto the next thing. As effed up a sport professional football is (on so many levels), it can't be accused of stagnation. Football is a like a shark in that regard, folks.